MSRY describe themselves as a four-piece hardcore band from Oxfordshire. With shows with the likes of Employed To Serve, Cancer Bats and SikTh and plays by Iggy Pop on his BBC Radio 6 show under their belt, they are ready to take it up a notch with their new EP “Loss”.
Following my review of their latest EP, I caught up with vocalist Kial whilst in Birmingham on their latest tour:
So, tell me about MSRY – introduce the band to me!
I’m Kial – I’m the vocalist, we have Charlie – he’s the guitarist, Kier – the guy with the massive earlobes and also our drummer, and Harvey – our bassist, and that is MSRY!
How is the tour going so far?
Ah, it’s been absolutely fucking mental. We started off in Oxford (our home town) with a sold-out show like in the tiniest venue – granted it was a tiny venue so of course it was going to sell out – but it was absolute chaos from start to finish, it was absolutely fantastic. We had Milton Keynes, that was an interesting one – mostly because of the antics that happened afterwards that we’re not going to talk about and they’re laughing over there *points to guitarist and drummer on the other side of the room* especially him because they know what went on! We had Leister last night at The Shed which was absolutely fantastic as well. There are some venues you go to and they’re like “you can't stand on that, you can’t stand on this, you can’t climb that” but they were like “well as long as you don’t hang from this really flimsy thing that we’ve got at the top there, you’re good to go!” – I climbed everywhere. I spilt blood and sweat everywhere, and they were just like “we really want you guys back – you guys are awesome!” and it’s just like “YES” so hopefully Birmingham tonight can live up to our expectations of tour.
Is there a date you were/are particularly looking forward to?
I think London is going to be the one that we’re looking forward to the most. Um, yeah, London has always been really really good to us in terms of venues, hospitality, especially the crowds as well. We’re really really looking forward to London. And it’s right at the end of tour as well so we can go absolutely schizo on that one and be like YEAAH lets go to work tomorrow guys!
What is the best show you’ve done as a band yet?
That’s a really hard question! I think we’ve all got different opinions on that. For me it’s probably when we supported Cancer Bats earlier this year at the O2 Academy mostly because it was pretty much a sold-out show, all of our friends were there and we played with Cancer Bats, we had Liam Cormier up on stage with us to perform Steel Breaks My Heart like, it was little Kial’s fucking dream gig and that’s – for me – probably our best show that we’ve ever done.
So, your last EP got KKKK and an 8/10 for metal hammer – that’s exciting, how did that feel?
That was cool as hell! Donnay [head of press for The Noise Cartel] sent that to us and we were like; What is going on? We’ve got some really good reviews – people actually like this? But then that goes back to the fact that we worked really really hard on the last EP and we were so proud of the reception that it actually got.
Let’s talk about this new EP – tell me about Loss as an EP
Loss as a general concept is something that everybody goes through. There is not one person in this entire world that has not experienced loss in some form or another. It’s something that everyone can hold true to their heart and they will experience that. It’s just something that is so universal that you can really hear it on every single song that we have on the EP and you can relate to something on every single song. Whether is going through loss from a dying family member, loss of yourself, loss of a relationship – everybody goes through these things as part of life and we really wanted to encapsulate that and really focus on the introspective, personal aspect of loss in general. Not so much to be like “everything is miserable because of loss” – we’re called misery but we’re actually very positive guys at the end of the day. Loss as a general EP concept is yes, loss is a thing, loss happens, but you become stronger because of it. You are more positive after you’ve experienced it because you can actually see what life has for you and you’ve got that in your hands and you’re like “you know what, I’m going make the fucking most of this, I’ve lost something and I’m going to reclaim it again”.
Do you have a favourite track to perform/record/listen to?
For me maybe Still Breaks My Heart - obviously it features Liam Cormier who is one of my favourite vocalists of all time like, I’m so hyped about that entire song and it all came together really nicely. For the rest of the band probably the track Gemini just because it’s so fast and so heavy, it’s got crunching breakdowns they’re like “yeah we cant wait to play this live!” but for me, It Still Breaks My Heart was my favourite from the start. We had a bit of a tousle between the band being like, should it be the first single? Second single? And it’s like “It’s got Liam Cormier on it for f*cks sake! Let’s do this!”
You’ve supported bands like Gassed Up, MTSX and Lotus eater over the last few months, but I’ve seen that you’ve recently been announced as main support for Your Demise 2004 in Southampton in January 2020 – how cool is that?
That’s going to be a really cool show. The original Your Demise I think they did their last shows with A Day to Remember a few years back and I went to see them and I was like “these bands are so fucking sick I wish one of my bands ha the chance to support them” and knowing they’ve got the original line up coming up and we’re main support for them – that’s crazy to think about. It came about as a really weird thing. The promoter came to us and was like “oh hey, I’m setting up this all-day thing in January, do you guys want to play it? It's down south and you’ve got a pretty good following down here and I love what you’re doing do you want it?” and we were just like “yeah sure why not”. A few weeks later he’s like “okay you guys are sub-headlining” and we’re like “okay cool who’s headlining?” and he was like “Your Demise 2004” and we were like “YEEEAH.” Can’t wait to play that.
So you were just like – really?
Yep! There were a couple of names thrown around and we were like yeah they’d be cool to play with, they’d be cool to headline and then he came out with Your Demise and I was just like “Yes. That’s what I wanted”.
Are there any venues that would be like a dream venue to play for you, for the band?
I don’t know. The thing is that if you look at iconic venues or really big venues like, everyone wants to play like Wembley and stuff that like, and that’s really cool, but I think that as a band we’re more about the live experience. Personally, I like climbing up things and like, hanging off a lot of things and just being a terror to venues. If we played those really big stadium venues, we’d lose a lot of what we actually do as a band. But we have played a lot of cool venues. The underworld is one of those venues that we never thought we’d get to experience, and we’ve got to play there twice this year already. That’s mad. But there are no real venues that we’d say are like something that we’d love to aim for, but something like the roundhouse for instance – everyone loves the roundhouse, I’d love to play the roundhouse, but its that trade-off. Do we play bigger shows if we get the opportunity to do so? Of course, we would, but would it lose a lot of the live aspect that we have as a band because of it? I’d just have to find crazier ways to climb things and crowd surf – I’d find ways! Get a longer cable – it’s fine!
What’s next for MSRY?
We’ve got stuff for next year which we can't announce because it has not been announced on the official Facebook page which is something I’ve been told off about from interviews in the past - but until then it’s just about getting the most out of this EP and making sure that we can do as much as possible for this and then probably get into the studio next year again. So basically, hitting the road and making more music like a band should!
Thanks to Kial from MSRY for taking the time to chat to me! What a lovely guy.
and don’t forget to check out Loss – out now on all streaming platforms! Spotify
If you’re a small band, promotion company, record company or gig photographer (especially local to the Midlands) drop me an email -which you can find on my contact/pr rage- or dm me on insta and we can chat about working together!